A semiconductor process chamber commonly comprises a container, a lid, and a seal that seals the interface therebetween. The lid is usually convertible between a condition whereat it seals the access opening into the processing space, and a condition whereat the access opening is uncovered for loading/unloading of the processing space. The container's interface surface and/or the lid's interface surface can include a circumferential groove in which the seal is situated.
Many semiconductor manufacturing methods now require processing chambers to create ultra-high-vacuum (UHV—pressures lower than about 10−7 pascal and/or 10−9 torr) and/or ultra-high-purity (UHP—total maximum contaminant level of 10 ppm) environments. And these manufacturing methods can involve repeated opening and sealing process chambers so that substrates (e.g., wafers) can be continuously loaded, processed, and then unloaded therefrom. Slow production rates (e.g., caused by long pump-down times), significant equipment downtime (e.g., for seal replacement or interface cleaning) and/or substandard yields (e.g., due to particle generation) are generally used as undesirable by semiconductor manufacturers.